JETS WILL REMAIN IN NEW JERSEY

By GERALD ESKENAZI

Published: February 7, 1986

The Jets have rejected state and city attempts to bring the club back to New York and will continue to play in Giants Stadium.

''It came down to who was going to pay for it,'' Vincent Tese, the chairman of the state's Urban Development Corporation, said yesterday in announcing that the Jets would remain in New Jersey.

The Jets were the most likely candidate to fulfill the condition that a National Football League team be committed to play in a proposed domed stadium before it was built in the Flushing Meadows section of Queens.

Now the city and state either must lure an existing N.F.L. franchise here or hope that the New Jersey Generals - the United States Football League team owned by Donald Trump - is added to the N.F.L. as part of a settlement of the U.S.F.L.'s antitrust suit against the N.F.L. The U.D.C. has selected Trump to build the stadium. Hess Opposes Ticket Plan

Although the Jets were offered 90 percent of the ticket revenue, a share of the luxury boxes, and prime tenancy in a domed stadium named for them, Leon Hess, the club's owner, told officials that because of an unusual financing proposal, many of the team's fans would unfairly be asked to pay thousands of dollars in exchange for the right to purchase tickets.

In a series of letters made available yesterday to The New York Times, Hess made clear to officials for some weeks that he would not accept the plan that had been hammered out by the city and state. The most controversial provision of that plan was the premium fans would pay for the right to purchase season tickets.

Hess claimed in one letter that Jets' fans would wind up paying more than $2 billion extra for seats over the course of a 40-year lease proposed by New York officials.

''The result is a domed stadium built on the backs of our fans,'' Hess wrote to Governor Cuomo and Mayor Koch on Jan. 7. ''And that is a burden which the Jets are not now prepared to impose on its loyal fans.'' Hess refused to comment on the negotiations. Feb. 1 Deadline When Hess notified the city in late 1983 that he was pulling the Jets out of Shea Stadium for New Jersey, he told Koch that the team would return by 1989 if plans for a suitable stadium were in place by Feb. 1 of this year.

The issue of financing remained unresolved by the only meeting Hess had with Tese and Herbert Sturz, the chairman of the City Planning Commission. The meeting, lasting 90 minutes, took place late Wednesday at the Manhattan headquarters of the Amerada Hess Corporation, of which Hess is chairman.

According to Tese, the prime stumbling block was Hess's insistence that the stadium be financed in the traditional way - with a municipality erecting the structure and then leasing it to the team. The U.D.C. and the City Planning Commission had backed an alternative proposed by Trump - that the fans help finance it by buying the rights to purchase season tickets. In effect, the ticket-holders would be like condominium owners of the seats.

Trump was chosen as the contingency builder - that is, the stadium would be built only if an N.F.L. team agreed to move here. His stadium would be a solid dome structure of more than 80,000 seats that would cost $286 million. Originally, plans called for construction to begin no later than this July. Tese said yesterday, however, that the U.D.C. would not hold to that if it took longer to get an N.F.L. team here.

''But who pays for the stadium was non-negotiable as far as we were concerned,'' said Tese of his meeting with Hess. ''When people are sleeping in your doorway, you're not going to allocate your resources inappropriately.''

About half the stadium's financing was to be realized by the sale of tax-free bonds. But a significant portion was to come from the yearly sale of 221 skyboxes at $60,000 each and the one-time sale of 23,000 seats at $12,000 apiece. Additionally, about 20,000 other seats would also be sold annually for lesser amounts. All of the seat-holders then would have the right to buy season tickets.

Thus, a family of four that now pays a total of $480 for four season's tickets at the 40-yard line, might have to put up $48,000 for the right to purchase their existing tickets. Outcome of Search Clouded

It is unclear now just where this leaves New York in its search for another football team. The city or state still has not condemned land for a structure and officials remain insistent that the users - the ticket-holders - pay. Since the average ''client'' of an N.F.L. team holds four tickets, even if corporations owned the 23,000 seats at $12,000 each the plan would require mean 5,000 corporations willing to put up that sort of money.

While Tese contended that ''several'' existing N.F.L. clubs are candidates to move here, and two, he said, have even made inquiries about a possible move, other problems remain.

''It's time for the Governor and Mayor to throw in the towel,'' said Lou Gordon, a spokesman for the Willets Point Business Association.

The Queens group claims to represent 100 businesses, employing about 2,000 people, which would be dislocated if the proposed stadium were built. The group has threatened lawsuits and last week wrote to Hess and said that it could tie up the city and state for years and delay construction of the project. Gordon said yesterday that he planned to ask Governor Cuomo for an April 1 deadline to get a team. Generals Eyed as Tenants

Tese said he believed the Generals were a likely candidate for a stadium, even though they do not fulfill the U.D.C.'s requirement of being in the N.F.L.

''From what I know of these types of lawsuits, Donald Trump has an excellent chance of winning and then of being accepted into the N.F.L.'' said Tese.

Trump said yesterday he expected a U.S.F.L. team - he would not specifically say it would be the Generals - to be a prime candidate to play in his proposed stadium.

''When we win the suit, professional football finally will be opened up to the great cities that have been overburdened,'' he said. ''The U.S.F.L. lawsuit will lead to professional football in New York. I'm not saying in what form.''

Hess's only recent public comments about the possible move back to New York came in November after a Jets game in Giants Stadium, which is located in East Rutherford, N.J. He said at the time that he believed city and state officials were ''trying to pressure me, and I don't like being pressured.'' He explained that he was concerned because the Feb. 1 deadline was approaching and that no one from the city or state had been in contact with him.

He had an agreement with the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority - which runs Giants Stadium -that if he were to break his lease to return to New York he would forfeit a $10 million bond. He was given until Feb. 15 to make a decision on whether to break the lease or remain in New Jersey. return.

The Jets pay 15 percent of their ticket revenue in rent to the New Jersey authority. They receive no money from luxury skyboxes, which the Giants own, and, say people knowledgeable about the lease, none has been promised.

Governor Cuomo and Mayor Koch, in an optimistic Jan. 7 letter to Hess, wrote that they ''invite you to bring the Jets back to New York City.'' The Jets were offered a 40-year lease, paying only 10 percent of their ticket revenue as rent, and receiving 20 percent of the luxury-suite revenue. They were also offered office space in the proposed stadium.